Veterans' charity accused of illegal accounting
Editor's note: Watch Anderson Cooper's interview with California's Attorney General. She tells him why she wants the charity board members fired.
California authorities are taking a controversial veterans' charity to court, accusing it of paying officers "excessive" salaries and making "imprudent" loans, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, to a leading conservative activist's company.
In a civil lawsuit announced Thursday, the state attorney general's office asked a judge to remove the president and the entire board of directors of Help Hospitalized Veterans. The complaint asks for the board and president to pay more than $4 million in penalties to compensate for "misrepresentations" in solicitations by the charity.
The charity "has helped some veterans," Attorney General Kamala Harris told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360." But she said nearly two-thirds of its revenue went to overhead, and the officers named in the complaint "have basically been lining their pockets off the compassion that Americans have for our veterans and servicemen and women."
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Post by: Drew Griffin and David Fitzpatrick Filed under: Charity Investigation • Special Investigations Unit |
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Dear Mr. Cooper: Thank you for your continued investigation into this disgraceful affair. And to think these criminals have avoided being imprisoned since 2008 just causes one to wonder how and why "they" got away with it for so long. I am sure that I am not alone; as I am sure people like myself, all across the United States, are sharing my indignation.
But with you at the helm, I know we must be positive that you will "sort them out
Pauline N. Fromer Capestrano Italy